Complex systems that require monitoring and control exist in a variety of technologies. For example, automobiles, aircraft, ships, factories, and power plants are examples of complex systems that include a large number elements. These numerous elements are desired to be monitored and controlled to ensure that the complex system operates as desired. For example, in a nuclear power plant, attributes of the components such as the generation of power, temperature of various components, steam pressure, water pressure, reactor temperature, rod temperature, and reactor output should be monitored to determine whether the power plant is functioning as desired or whether corrective action should be taken.
Various conventional systems might be used to monitor and control complex systems. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,862,054 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,774,645 describe systems that monitor attributes of complex systems at various point of the complex system. Data relating to the complex system is forwarded to a central computer system. For example, in the conventional system of U.S. Pat. No. 5,862,054, data relating to processing in a wafer fabrication system is forwarded to a conventional central computer system for analysis. Statistics might be collected on the wafer fabrication system and performance of the wafer fabrication system improved. Similarly, the conventional system described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,774,645 fault cues are provided to a conventional central processing station. The fault cues indicate the origin and nature of the fault. The central processing station can thus aid in diagnosing and correcting faults.
Although conventional methods and systems for diagnosing and correcting faults exist, one of ordinary skill in the art will readily recognize that the demands of a complex system are difficult to meet. In particular, the number of components of a complex system may be extremely large. Furthermore, the attributes of many of these components might be desired to be monitored often. For example, some attributes might be sampled multiple times per second. As a result, an exceedingly large amount of data may be provided to the conventional control systems. Thus, it may be difficult or impossible for conventional systems to analyze the data and diagnose impending failures in a timely manner. Moreover, managers of the complex system might desire to have more information relating to a fault. For example, raw data relating to various attributes around the time of occurrence and location the fault may be desired for analysis.
Accordingly, what is needed is a system and method for more efficiently controlling complex systems. The present invention addresses such a need.